

Although McQueen famously lost the first race because of bad advice Mater gave him - which led to their big fight and the main obstacle to overcome in the film - he was a four-time Piston Cup winner by that point. The “mini documentary” is only a couple of minutes long, but at no time does it mention the World Grand Prix race in Tokyo from Cars 2. The focus jumps immediately from Cars to Cars 3. He’s everything McQueen hates, and that’s hinted at in the 30 for 30 video. Storm is the newest racer to challenge McQueen on the track he’s faster, more technologically advanced and a punk.
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The Cars 3 version is all about Lightning McQueen: the struggles he had as a rookie racer in 2006 (the year the first movie came out), his slow build to being one of the best racers in the world, and his upcoming rivalry with Jackson Storm. To make that point even more painstakingly clear, Pixar released a new video yesterday in the style of ESPN’s 30 for 30 series, which takes a look at a specific athlete or sporting event in great detail. “It’s time to pour one out for Cars 2, the movie that Pixar wished never was”

Pixar is clearly trying to clean its slate and return the Cars franchise to its previous glory. Cars 3 doesn’t need Cars 2 to survive unlike with most franchises, as long as people have only seen the first Cars, they can head into the third without missing a beat. The intent is obvious: Pixar would like its audience to forget that Cars 2 even exists. A relationship, it should be added, that is core to the Cars 3 story. When Mater is introduced in Cars 3, he seems a little more mature, but there’s no hint at the second installment in the Cars franchise that led to this moment, or the heroic act he performed that changed his relationship with McQueen forever. Cars 3 picks up basically where Cars ended, with no mention of the experiences that McQueen, his best friend Mater and the rest of the Radiator Springs crew shared when they left America and traveled to Japan and Europe. As bad as it was, it seemed unlikely that Cars 3 wouldn’t at least reference its predecessor.Įxcept that’s exactly what happened. When Cars 2 was released, critics called it a fairly disastrous sequel and said that it was time for the franchise to “ be taken out to the scrapyard.” There were a number of issues with the second movie - it wasn’t a racing film anymore, per se, but a story of espionage, and it didn’t focus on Lightning McQueen - but it was still a Pixar joint. So bad, in fact, that even Pixar has trouble remembering it. Cars 2 is widely regarded as one of the worst movies to ever come out of Pixar’s studio.
